The Lainhart Files

Source: Time.com & Getty Images In addition to examining the larger issues of racial discrimination in American society, Ta-Nehisi Coates' book Between the World and Me  also specifically addresses the American school system and how it reflects America's larger racial issues. Coates argues that "the streets" and "the schools" are "arms of the same beast" (33). The beast that he's referring to is the larger issue of what some refer to as "systemic racism," or the idea that racial inequities are built into any society's institutional structures. This idea applies to public schools because of how they are funded. Local property taxes fund American schools. Because, according to the Brookings Institute , the typical white American family has almost ten times the wealth of the typical black family, schools in predominately white areas tend to be vastly better funded than schools in black areas.  Despite the massive socioe...

Photo by  Corey Blaz  on  Unsplash The first graders held signs over their heads and chanted out loud to a cheering crowd of parents, teachers, and school board members, "We read 4,458 books!" The crowd went wild, applauding and cheering. The kids beamed. Their teacher closed with, "And remember kids, never stop reading !" The crowd cheered some more. Like Hamlet at his mother's wedding, I sat in the corner, a melancholy English teacher and couldn't stop myself from thinking, "But they will stop." According to a 2014 Common Sense Media report , 64% of seventeen-year-olds in 1984 said they read a book (for pleasure) at least once per week. In 2012 that number dropped to 40%--a 24% decrease. That means that in 2012, almost two-thirds of high school juniors or seniors did not pick up a book (eBook or print) even once a week. Plus, that's the first year that SnapChat came out and before it was big. Does anyone think that number has gone u...